Multiple options for Collected following Sunland Festival of Racing win

Collected won the richest and longest race of his young career last Sunday in the $415,000 Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes, and the 3-year-old has a host of options going forward, according to trainer Bob Baffert. Collected, who in January won the Grade 3 Sham at his base of Santa Anita, earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 90 in Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile race at Sunland.

The Festival Stakes replaced this year’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby and as such did not offer qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby. Sunland had missed a month of racing earlier in the meet because of an outbreak of the equine herpesvirus and a quarantine that was not lifted until March 9. As such, the track adjusted its richest program, run Sunday, and also replaced the Sunland Park Oaks with the $200,000 Plum Pretty on the card of seven stakes.

Collected already has 11 Kentucky Derby points, placing him 23rd on the preference list as of Wednesday, but he might not be headed for the Derby.

“With him, looking at a mile and a quarter, we’re being realistic, and that might be stretching it a little bit,” Baffert said. “We always have other races like the Derby Trial, the Preakness, maybe [something] in the fall. Plus, he likes grass, too. He looked good when he broke his maiden down the hill [at Santa Anita]. We’ll watch everything very closely and look at the Kentucky Derby if it were to fall apart drastically. Right now, we’re in a good spot.”

Collected is a son of City Zip who races for Speedway Stable. The horse’s win Sunday had sentimental value for Baffert, who won last year’s Triple Crown with American Pharoah.

“Sunland Park, I’ve been going there since I was 13, 14 with my father,” Baffert said. “That was big time for me, growing up in Arizona. I feel bad for New Mexico. They have been working so hard to establish that big day of racing, had the [outbreak], and could have easily scrapped it completely. They worked hard. The results have been fantastic from there.”

Baffert won the 2011 Sunland Park Oaks with Plum Pretty, who went on to capture the Kentucky Oaks. Mine That Bird parlayed a fourth-place finish in the 2009 Sunland Derby to a win in the Kentucky Derby, while Firing Line was second in last year’s big dance at Churchill off his win in the Sunland Derby.